Britain Bank Picture For Deco Contest

[Mark Knotts]

I finally decided to start messing with decorating our bank onCatskills and therefore made a nice big image of the bank.

The image is pretty big - 1541 x 1565 & 1.14MB. It's jpeg but the compression quality was set to 90% so it should be fine for use. I use paint.net if anyone was wondering.

I'd put it in img tags but I don't want anyone clicking this thread have to load a 1.14MB pic, so here's the direct link on tinyurl:

http://i43.***********/2gxfnl4.jpg

And here's a little image of an area I did (it's a bbq ):

 

[shanshu]

I would really have liked to participate, but I could not figure out how to get the in game artwork into the picture. I don't have photoshop on my home computer and I can't do it from work.

 

[Edina Monsoon]

Why not make it a 50 story building, like every other bank in the world, and I want my own personal vault!

 

[Lady Arwen]

and I want my own personal vault!

 

[Oriana]

I love the BBQ!!!

 

[Hemisphere]

That's a pretty cool BBQ, but it got me thinking:

The devs basically asked people to cut and paste art from InsideUO - are they actually going to make modified versions of the game's art for this?

If you just cut and paste art and stick it together in Photoshop in the way that looks best, that isn't going to translate into feasible game decoration, unless the devs are prepared to make custom artwork modifications for the sake of this contest. Each object sits on it's own "spot" on the game grid, and the only position which can be modified is the Z axis, meaning certain items will not sit well with other items, and many decoration possibilities that work fine in Photoshop, will not work ingame.

It would be useful if a dev can clarify on this, but on the offchance that they don't clarify before the deadline, I would warn any prospective entrants against making their entries in this way, because you might end up designing something which can't be done!

 

[4gregu]

Thanks for the pic, I would love to see the Brit bank busy again on Chesapeake, and I think these are the only changes that would be needed.

 

[Redxpanda]

I love the BBQ but i don't think it would fit well with the bank. I think it would fit well in east brit.

As far as the deco contest goes, i had great ideas but i have/had no idea how to put it together.

 

[4gregu]

Hemi, I think when they edit the map itself, they can put items wherever they wnat (IE not limited to the place items sit for you or I), just look at the buildings that have tables set with silverware and plates. Not all of them use the 3 silverware set item, but all of them are placed in a way that cant be replicated with a decorating tool.

 

[Hemisphere]

Greg, they definitely can't.

You can't replicate those "place settings" with a decorator tool, but you can do it by putting all the objects in a crate, then axing it (the decorator tool doesn't allow objects to share the same spot on the Z axis, but the game physics do allow it)

What I mean is, the Z axis can be modified, but the X and Y axes cannot (even by devs) - unless, as I said, they were to make modified versions of the game art.

If you look in Inside UO, most of the tiles have white "space" either side of them. Some have a bit more on the left, some have a bit more on the right, and that determines where they sit. An item that usually sits on the left can never sit on the right, but somebody making their decoration in Photoshop isn't likely to be calculating this.

I'm just pretty worried that some people are going to make some astoundingly detailed and beautiful creations, send them off, and then by VERY disappointed when something clearly artistically inferior appears at their local bank, just because the entrant understand more about game physics.

 

[Wulf of Britain]

This is how we redesigned it on GL today.

 

[Hemisphere]

This is how we redesigned it on GL today.

Also worthy of note tbh: Some of the best times I ever had in UO were spent decorating Brit bank.

Well, that and walking to Destard barefoot in the snow - uphill both ways of course

 

[FatMagic]

Thanks for the pic, I would love to see the Brit bank busy again on Chesapeake, and I think these are the only changes that would be needed.

I second this
I miss the old busy Brit bank... hub of commerce.

 

[Ghost71]

Man i need a pic like that cept for Greatlakes. The big bank pic that is.

 

[Sarsmi]

Greg, they definitely can't.

You can't replicate those "place settings" with a decorator tool, but you can do it by putting all the objects in a crate, then axing it (the decorator tool doesn't allow objects to share the same spot on the Z axis, but the game physics do allow it)

What I mean is, the Z axis can be modified, but the X and Y axes cannot (even by devs) - unless, as I said, they were to make modified versions of the game art.

If you look in Inside UO, most of the tiles have white "space" either side of them. Some have a bit more on the left, some have a bit more on the right, and that determines where they sit. An item that usually sits on the left can never sit on the right, but somebody making their decoration in Photoshop isn't likely to be calculating this.

I'm just pretty worried that some people are going to make some astoundingly detailed and beautiful creations, send them off, and then by VERY disappointed when something clearly artistically inferior appears at their local bank, just because the entrant understand more about game physics.

Actually you can use a dec tool now to get items to sit at the same level. I know for a while you couldn't, and those were sad days for us decorators, but it's been fixed since then.

 

[Sarsmi]

I love the BBQ but i don't think it would fit well with the bank. I think it would fit well in east brit.

Yeah I totally agree with this. It's very attractive, but it seems out of place.

I liked the initial idea of this contest but I think there were too many aspects that were not thought through. For one thing the size of the screenshot was extremely limiting, changing it mid contest hoses everyone who planned around that issue and sent their pics in early. Also, you have to crop out white space when using images as there is no source (that I'm aware of) that provides gif images you can use. Also as was pointed out, items aren't going to end up positioned correctly in most cases with respect to the x and y axis.

I found it extremely time consuming to build a simple staircase out of the blocks and bits I found in insideUO, to the point that I knew I would have to spend many hours and most likely days working on something, and wouldn't even be certain of the positioning of most of the items.

I think that they have the right idea, and contests are usually pretty fun, but players do not have the right toolset for things of this nature. What would have worked a bit better would be to have players submit ideas they would have for rebuilding brit bank along with a screenshot of their current "work" (IE their house). Then the winners could spend a couple hours with whatever GM or whoever is gonna be slapping stuff down, and be able to work within the limitations of what the GM can build, using the list of ideas they have, to create their design.

 

[Petra Fyde]

Well, I guess it depends on just how 'decorated' you want it to be. I didn't want too much decoration, just a bit, so I built a 'replica bank' on Test then cut/pasted replica 'bits' into a screenie of the actual bank. I didn't go for decorating the whole area, just the bank inside and roof and I only used items/tiles that are available in game or through the house menu.
Having said that, the only way my entry will win is if no one else has entered one for the shard

if anyone wants my 'replica bank' give me a call, I'll transfer it to you.

 

[Mark Knotts]

Ahh well the BBQ place was just me messing around for less than 5 minutes. I personally have no intentions of entering at all - just figured someone could use that bank picture (atleast someone from Catskills).

I do hope we get some great entries.

 

[Mark Knotts]

Man i need a pic like that cept for Greatlakes. The big bank pic that is.

If I find time tomorrow I could most likely edit in Great Lakes unique look overtop of Catskills and upload another version.

 

[Ghost71]

If I find time tomorrow I could most likely edit in Great Lakes unique look overtop of Catskills and upload another version.

Cool, yeah only things i see different is the red teleporter the color of the trash and the blood on the ground.

 

[Nine Dark Moons]

Thanks for the pic, I would love to see the Brit bank busy again on Chesapeake, and I think these are the only changes that would be needed.

 

[Mark Knotts]

Here's the Great Lakes version: http://i43.***********/fkcyes.jpg

 

[Crysta]

Just so im sure about this.. you people all clapping and such for adding a moongate to the bank do realize it would only be an outgoing one, not an incoming one, right? Its not something coded into the client, so you'd only be able to use it to leave.

 

[4gregu]

Just so im sure about this.. you people all clapping and such for adding a moongate to the bank do realize it would only be an outgoing one, not an incoming one, right? Its not something coded into the client, so you'd only be able to use it to leave.

Then it would need to be coded into the client. I certainly hope this current dev team is able to that. If not, we have bigger problems than I thought.

 

[Crysta]

They've already said the contest was cosmetic only and that the map wouldn't be patched. Im guessing the same would be true for coding anything new, especially if its only for one or two shards. That plus its a bad idea.. much better idea to just remove the NPCs from Luna to make things more equal, like they used to be.

 

[Babble]

Yeah I totally agree with this. It's very attractive, but it seems out of place.

I liked the initial idea of this contest but I think there were too many aspects that were not thought through. For one thing the size of the screenshot was extremely limiting, changing it mid contest hoses everyone who planned around that issue and sent their pics in early. Also, you have to crop out white space when using images as there is no source (that I'm aware of) that provides gif images you can use. Also as was pointed out, items aren't going to end up positioned correctly in most cases with respect to the x and y axis.

I found it extremely time consuming to build a simple staircase out of the blocks and bits I found in insideUO, to the point that I knew I would have to spend many hours and most likely days working on something, and wouldn't even be certain of the positioning of most of the items.

I think that they have the right idea, and contests are usually pretty fun, but players do not have the right toolset for things of this nature. What would have worked a bit better would be to have players submit ideas they would have for rebuilding brit bank along with a screenshot of their current "work" (IE their house). Then the winners could spend a couple hours with whatever GM or whoever is gonna be slapping stuff down, and be able to work within the limitations of what the GM can build, using the list of ideas they have, to create their design.

You could use Centred for the map or set up a server where as administer you can set up what you want anyway.

http://www.aksdb.de/CentrED/
Others would be Dragon9 mod or Map generator 2 which I neither used.
Centr Ed is a bit bitchy to set up, but just lods the data from your UO files and lets you add or delete them. Just be careful not to change/save your UO files, else you will have to reinstall.

Anyone really desperate to try for 1-2 hours and I can set something up.

 

[Crysta]

And for building pieces/staircases, you can always use the ingame housebuilder and paint out all the junk around what you build.

 

[Ghost71]

Here's the Great Lakes version: http://i43.***********/fkcyes.jpg

Thanks! Hmm it says we can enter as many times as we want. But only one email each time, so do we have to email em with our email setup with our UO account and just put in a different email address in the message. Or do we gotta email em with the other email address.

 

[Millie]

I took it as one picture per e-mail.

 

[Cetric]

i say you nuke luna and just redesign moonglow